Freedom to really innovate

JP already covered this in his “We redesign the Internet” blog post. At Cliqz, we’re really reinventing the web. We’ve already developed a whole range of entirely new technologies.

Marc

Managing Director

Our ability to come up with these innovations in such a short time with just a small team stems from more than just our technical knowledge, creativity and corporate culture. Unlike established providers, at Cliqz we’re free to actually create something new.

JP already covered this in his “We redesign the Internet” blog post. At Cliqz, we’re reinventing the web. We’ve already developed a whole range of entirely new technologies: Cliqz for Firefox blew apart the two-decade-long dichotomy between browsing and searching. We’ve shown that you can enjoy a personalised user experience without handing over your personal data. We’ve developed totally new technology for locating and evaluating sites, proving that – contrary to popular opinion – it’s perfectly possible for big data to coexist with personal privacy. Our ability to come up with these innovations in such a short time with just a small team stems from more than just our technical knowledge, creativity and corporate culture. Unlike established providers, at Cliqz we’re free to actually create something new.

A new Internet isn’t just a question of technology

Sure, our mission to redesign the Internet might be more than a little ambitious. How could a tiny start-up from Munich possibly “reinvent the Internet”? And why don’t the big guys in Silicon Valley do it? Well, it’s simple: they just aren’t interested. All their development power is funnelled into turning the Internet into a mammoth advertising and data-hoarding machine. And they do everything they can to feed their business models. An innovative idea that threatens those business models has no future with them.

Not that there’s anything wrong with commercial interests. We have some of our own. But unlike these established companies, we’re free to innovate from the ground up and really change our users’ Internet experience for the better. As a well-funded start-up, we can afford to operate by the principle “put the user first, and the rest will follow” as we develop never-before-seen technologies and the new business models to support them.

One example in particular clearly illustrates how established business models obstruct changes that would benefit users: advertising alongside search engine results. It’s not technical limitations that keep users from being sent directly to the website they’re looking for; it’s an unwillingness to forgo any source of revenue. Our Cliqz Firefox extension alone is proof that a “searching directly in the browser” is feasible.

The many innovations we’ve included in Cliqz for Firefox over less than two years of development have offered up ample technological evidence that it’s possible to redesign a more user-friendly Internet.

By liberating ourselves from the business models of the past, we can create the web of tomorrow.